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TOMORROW’S FORECAST:
Cloudy and sultry with a 60 per
cent chance of showers
HIGH: 72 LOW: 60
Vol.89 No.110 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, March 8,1990
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With spring break just around the
orner, students may be prone to
)ver-indulge in their partying.
Designed to promote a safe vaca-
ion, the Texas A&M National Drug
rights ofwareness Week Committee spon-
ored the all-university “Spring
tr and ®reak-Fest ’90” party last night at
he Memorial Student Center. The
rarty, as fun as it may have been,
ad a rather serious message for stti-
lents.
As part of National Collegiate
tompam D ni g Awareness Week, the party
emphasized responsible decision
naking and safe behavior during
he University’s vacation, which be-
ndicatedi S' 08 at conclusion of classes on
Friday and continues through
Vlarch 18.
Spring Break-Fest ’90 activities in
cluded music, dancing, stand-up
comedy by Thursday Night Live’s
ason Porter, door prizes and a pre-
ientation by A&M junior engi-
icering major, Bill Huddleston.
Huddleston was the best friend of
Jniversity of Texas student Mark
Gilroy, who was one of the victims in
he Matamoros, Mexico, drug-cult
ilayings of spring break 1989. Hud-
^ Heston traveled to Brownsville last
cear with a group of friends, includ-
ng Kilroy. He is believed to have
)een the last person to see Kilroy be-
ore his abduction and murder.
In a pre-party news conference,
duddleston stressed the need for
afety during spring break.
“I owe it to Mark to get the mes-
age out to students,” Huddleston
aid. “They need to keep in mind
hat bad things can happen, even to
the
LTV A::
p ,ant ' C • u 1 ,
b ofFo*P nn g break partying, offered sug-
estions for a safe vacation.
People who are going to drink, he
aid, need to make the decison be-
ie impeW ore start drinking. They need
. 0 (,| e n o stay in groups, and designate a
_ t |j iriver before it may be too late. Also,
le said that people who are going
nto Mexico need to realize that
hey’re going into a foreign country.
“We felt pretty safe going into
datamoros late at night,” he said.
We were in a group, knew what we
ivere doing. It was just a freak acci
dent.”
Huddleston said that he still con-
|iders the border town of Matamo-
os, with its drug problems, to be a
io spokf
he best of us.’
Huddleston, realizing that stu-
ents will continue the traditional
Kilroy’s parents say some good
has come from son’s slaying
MATAMOROS, Mexico (AP)
— Mark Kilroy’s disappearance a
year ago during the height of
spring break ended with the dis
covery of a twisted cult’s “human
slaugnterhouse” that stunned
even seasoned lawmen.
Yet Kilroy’s parents say some
good has come from the ritual
slaying of their 21-year-old son:
greater awareness of the evils of
drugs they blame for his death.
Tne University of Texas stu
dent dropped out of sight about 2
a.m. on March 14, 1989, while
out bar-hopping with three
friends in the border city. After a
month-long search, his mutilated
corpse was found buried at a
ranch west of Matamoros.
Fourteen other victims also
were unearthed there and at a
nearby farm. A drug-smuggling
cult allegedly performed the rit
ual slayings seeking magical pro
tection from the law and rival
smugglers.
Alex Perez, sheriff of Cameron
County in Brownsville just across
the Rio Grande, described the
scene of Kilroy’s murder as a “hu
man slaughterhouse,” the most
gruesome crime he has investi
gated in 14 years of law enforce
ment.
The case still haunts him, he
said.
“In my life. I’ve seen a lot of it,
but this was the one that got me
not to sleeping at night,” he said.
Several books on the Matamo
ros case have been rushed to the
market over the past year, includ-
ing one with the title “Hell
Ranch.”
Kilroy’s parents said they
haven’t read them.
“From what people have told
us, it was strictly to sensationalize
what happened there rather than
for people to see that from such
an evil tiling that a lot of good has
come out from that,” said Mark’s
mother, Helen.
Mrs. Kilroy said the positive re
sult of her son’s death is a grow
ing awareness of the dangers of
drug abuse and the drug trade.
She and Mark’s father, James,
are writing their own book about
Mark’s slaying.
“In our book we intend to tell
the true story, and exactly what
all went on. how we felt aoout it
all,” James Kilroy said.
The Kilroys, who live in Santa
Fe, near Houston, have waged
their own war on drugs through
speaking engagements and their
and-drug Marlt Kilroy Founda
tion.
Mrs. Kilroy said they some
times feel overwhelmed, “And at
that point it seems like we always
hear from somebody who asks us
not to give up, to keep working at
trying to make a difference, try
ing to let people know the de-
strucdon of drugs.”
The slayings make up case No.
89-110 in the Fourth State Dis
trict Court in Matantoros. Judge
Francisco Salvador Perez has the
task of sorting through the evi
dence and pronouncing verdicts
on the seven people accused of
the murders.
dangerous spot.
“Looking back, I think that stu
dents can have just as much fun on
our side of the border,” he said.
Huddleston admitted that he has
heard of several people who won’t
be going south for vacation because
of last year’s incident. As for himself,
he would find it hard to return.
“I’m not saying that I’ll never go
back to Matamoros, but for now it
would only be a painful reminder,”
he said.
Huddleston, who met Kilroy dur
ing high school, said he has seen
some positive results come from the
tradgedy.
Mark’s death, he said, spurred ac
tion, not words, from the govern
ment.
“With all of the recent action, 1
feel that Mark did not die in vain.”
A year later, Huddleston said he
has been able to put most of it be
hind him. Being busy with school, he
said he doesn’t wish to relive the ex
perience.
This year, he has planned a snow
skiing trip to New Mexico with a
friend. He said this year he will be
more aware and take greater pre
cautions.
Chow time
Students walk down the dual staircases leading
to the Commons dining area for dinner Wednes-
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
day. The dining area was closed last semester
for renovations.
nity
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Absentee voting will end Fri
day.
On-campus absentee voting in
the Democratic primary will be in
146 MSC. Republican primary
on-campus absentee voting will
be in 138 MSC.
The other three county absen
tee polling sites are the Brazos
County Courthouse on 26th
Street in Bryan, Ben Milam El
ementary School on Ridgedale
Street in Bryan and the College
Station School District adminis
tration office on Welsh Avenue in
College Station.
All four precincts will have a
complete list of registered voters,
so voters who have moved or lost
their voter registration cards and
don’t know where they should
vote can vote absentee.
Sandinista forces provide guns for civilians
JINOTEGA, Nicaragua (AP) —
Sandinista leaders say they’ll hand
over the government on April 25,
but their local’ forces don’t appear
ready to hand over their guns.
The army, a party organ, is deliv
ering truckloads of assault rifles to
civilians in Jinotega and Matagalpa
provinces who live in the poor
neighborhoods the leftist Sandinis-
tas regard as their “social base.”
“All the barrios have guns. They
are all defending their land,” Fran-
cisca Castileblanco, a 52-year-old
tortilla vendor, said showing off her
new AK-47.
High-ranking Sandinista officials
in Jinotega and Matagalpa at first
denied civilians were being armed.
When confronted with evidence,
the officials asserted they were cre
ating a self-defense network to fend
off possible attacks by Contra forces
that the Sandinistas have been bat
tling for years.
But they also acknowledged that
guns are going to people living on
land confiscated after the 1979 revo
lution, areas the party regards as its
grassroots.
The Sandinistas have said they
will “defend the conquests of the rev
olution,” including opposing any ef
forts to return land to previous own
ers and possibly other aspects of the
conservative economic policies of the
new government of President-elect
Violetta Barrios de Chamorro.
Officials of the United National
Opposition say they won’t dislodge
peasants from land that is being
worked, even if it was expropriated
under Sandinista rule.
“There is a little tension,” ac
knowledged Col. Manuel Salva-
tierra, the regiotlal military com
mander. “There is a lot of
uncertainty about what will happen
when the new government takes
International observers, ‘ diplo
mats and opposition officials are
worried about the large-scale distri
bution of weapons at a time when
tensions are so high.
“It’s a time bomb,” said Luis Ser
rano, part of the Organization of
American States observer team mon
itoring Matagalpa and Jinotega
provinces.
Officials of the United National
Opposition, the conservative coali
tion that defeated the Sandinistas in
the Feb. 24 elections, say they have
reports of arms being distributed in
several other provinces and that the
issue is on the agenda for transition
negotiations between the Sandinistas
and UNO.
UNO representatives have also
met with top-ranking regional offi
cials of the Sandinista party and the
Sandinista army, Santiago Rivas,
UNO’s legal adviser in Matagalpa,
78 miles north of Managua, said.
“We’ve argued that they shouldn’t
give arms to civilians,” Rivas said in
an interview. “It could provoke a
civil war.”
Their rallies resound with politi
cal battle cries such as “One Single
Army,” a slogan expressing the revo
lutionary goal of melding the peo
ple, the party and the military into a
united armed force.
“They are trying to intimidate,”
Rev. Eliar Pineda, a Roman Catholic
priest in Jinotega whose family
backed UNO, said.
Sandinista gangs known as “tur-
bas” have demonstrated in Jinotega,
100 miles north of Managua, and in
Matagalpa since the Feb. 25 election.
Intimidated UNO supporters have
stayed at home rather than celebrate
the coalition’s resounding victory at
the polls.
Correction
A story in Tuesday’s edition of
The Battalion incorrectly identi
fied the television station that airs
“Campus Journal,” a weekly news
magazine produced by student
TV journalists.
“Campus Journal” appears on
cable access channel 31.
Miss Texas A&M prepares for University promotional tour
By SUZANNE CALDERON
Of The Battalion Staff
Horn
Photo by Eric H. Roalson
For someone who just entered the Miss
Texas A&M University Scholarship Pag
eant in 1989 because she wanted to sing in
front of an audience, Rhonda Jo Horn, the
newly crowned Miss Texas A&M 1990-91,
has come a long way.
“I’ve always liked to sing, that’s why I en
tered the Miss Texas A&M pageant last
year,” Horn said.
Horn was the first runner-up in last
year’s pageant and she said that after enter
ing one pageant she had to keep trying.
“You get what you call the bug, the pag
eant bug, and you want to keep doing it (en
tering pageants) because it is so fun,” Horn
said.
As Miss Texas A&M, Horn will represent
the University at events around the state
and go on a promotional tour for A&M.
“This is my last year at A&M and I want
to give my final push for the University and
represent them in this way because A&M
means so much to me and has such a special
place in my heart, that I want to give back
what A&M has given to me,” Horn said. “I
know that sounds like what everyone says
about A&M, but I feel that many people
have the same feelings about A&M.”
Some students, however, feel differently
about the pageant, and protested outside
Rudder Auditorium before the pageant,
saying that beauty pageants discriminated
against women.
Horn said she felt the protestors had ev
ery right to protest, but felt they were a
little off-the-mark.
“They argued freedom of choice and
that this pageant exploits women,” she said.
“It was my choice and the other contestants’
choice to be in the pageant. It builds self-es
teem, it builds friendships — there are a lot
of advantages to this pageant.
“I don’t feel exploited or that I’m a sex
object or property ... I go out there because
I have confidence in myself.”
The argument of the protestors that the
pageant is judged only on physical beauty is
unjustified, Horn said.
“Seventy percent of the competition is
based on talent and intelligence, not physi
cal beauty,” Horn said. “Thirty percent of
the pageant is based on health mainte
nance.
“I respect their right to protest — I just
regret that they were a little bit misin
formed about how the pageant works.”
Horn said physical beauty comes second
ary to presence, poise and talent. The
judges are not looking for genetic qualities
that make you a beauty, she said.
In the talent portion of the competition,
Horn sang “Sunday Kind Of Love.” The
song has been performed by Reba McIn
tyre, but Horn said she performs it differ
ently.
“I have my own style of voice which is
quite different from hers,” she said.
Before the pageant, Horn said she was
basically a shower singer. She said she took
voice lessons in high school, but never per
formed in front of an audience.
Horn will be performing in front of one
less audience this year because she will not
be participating in the Miss Texas-America
pageant as did former Miss Texas A&Ms.
The Miss Texas A&M pageant defran-
chised from the Miss America Scholarship
Pageant due to lack of funds and a high
turnover in the MSC Pageant Committee.
Instead, Horn said, the MSC made a pos
itive move by sending Miss Texas A&M on
a promotional tour for the University.
Another reason, she said, for defranchis
ing is that the Miss Texas and Miss America
pageants concentrate on world events and
issues, and the A&M pageant has toned that
aspect down.
“We’ve made sure contestants were fa
miliar with those types of issues, but we are
concentrating more on poise, personality
and basic intelligence,” Horn said. “It was
more of a concentration of A&M as a uni
versity and what A&M means to you.”
Along with her new title, Horn is a sub
chairwoman for the Aggie Muster Commit
tee and a volunteer at the Rape Crisis Cen
ter.
Horn is a speech communications major
from Seymour, Texas. Although she has
been at A&M for only three years, Horn
will graduate in December 1990. She said
she plans on working on her teaching cer
tificate in Spring 1991.
Horn said she would like to go into pub
lic relations or sales in the health care field,
but would like to teach secondary school
eventually.
“There are so many things I want to do
— I want to try my hand at the corporate
world first, then teach later,” she said.